WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT WISDOM

THE BOOK OF WISDOM

This Book is so called, because it treats of the excellence of WISDOM,the means to obtain it, and the happy fruits it produces. It is writtenin the person of Solomon, and contains his sentiments. But it isuncertain who was the writer. It abounds with instructions andexhortations to kings and all magistrates to minister justice in thecommonwealth, teaching all kinds of virtues under the general names ofjustice and wisdom. It contains also many prophecies of Christ's coming,passion, resurrection, and other Christian mysteries. The whole may bedivided into three parts. In the first six chapters, the authoradmonishes all superiors to love and exercise justice and wisdom. In thenext three, he teacheth that wisdom proceedeth only from God, and isprocured by prayer and a good life. In the other ten chapters, hesheweth the excellent effects and utility of wisdom and justice.

Wisdom

Chapter 1

An exhortation to seek God sincerely, who cannot be deceived, anddesireth not our death.

1:1. Love justice, you that are the judges of the earth. Think of theLord in goodness, and seek him in simplicity of heart:

1:2. For he is found by them that tempt him not: and he sheweth himselfto them that have faith in him.

1:3. For perverse thoughts separate from God: and his power, when it istried, reproveth the unwise:

1:4. For wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in abody subject to sins.

1:5. For the Holy Spirit of discipline will flee from the deceitful, andwill withdraw himself from thoughts that are without understanding, andhe shall not abide when iniquity cometh in.

1:6. For the spirit of wisdom is benevolent, and will not acquit theevil speaker from his lips: for God is witness of his reins, and he is atrue searcher of his heart, and a hearer of his tongue.

1:7. For the Spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole world: and thatwhich containeth all things, hath knowledge of the voice.

1:8. Therefore he that speaketh unjust things, cannot be hid, neithershall the chastising judgment pass him by.

1:9. For inquisition shall be made into the thoughts of the ungodly, andthe hearing of his words shall come to God, to the chastising of hisiniquities.

1:10. For the ear of jealousy heareth all things, and the tumult ofmurmuring shall not be hid.

1:11. Keep yourselves, therefore, from murmuring, which profitethnothing, and refrain your tongue from detraction, for an obscure speechshall not go for nought: and the mouth that belieth, killeth the soul.

1:12. Seek not death in the error of your life, neither procure yedestruction by the works of your hands.

1:13. For God made not death, neither hath he pleasure in thedestruction of the living.

1:14. For he created all things that they might be: and he made thenations of the earth for health: and there is no poison of destructionin them, nor kingdom of hell upon the earth.

1:15. For justice is perpetual and immortal.

1:16. But the wicked with works and words have called it to them: andesteeming it a friend, have fallen away and have made a covenant withit: because they are worthy to be of the part thereof.